It should come as no surprise to anyone reading this blog that counterfeit iPads, iPods, iPhones and any other Apple product you can think of are abundant in the market. But did you know that there are actually knock-off Apple Stores? That is right, some savvy counterfeiters actually set up fake Apple Stores in China, motherland of counterfeit goods.

The existence of fake Apple stores was first reported in the blogs of two America ex-pats currently living in China, GIZMODO and BirdAbroad. GIZMODO and BirdAbroad took pictures of some very impressive-looking stores that had all the amenities and trimmings of any Apple Store. If you look at the pictures you might notice some slight differences that show that these stores are not genuine Apple Stores. The biggest clue is a sign promoting the store as an "Apple Stoer".

But how do we know for sure that these stores are not affiliated with the technology giant? If you look at the list of Apple Stores in China on Apple's website, you will see that there is no store in Kunming, which is where these knockoff Apple Stores are located.

Many people who are not in the brand protection and anti-counterfeiting industry feel that they can protect themselves from counterfeit goods by shopping in legitimate retail establishments. This logic (which is not the best logic ever) has been proven wrong.